One thing I have never really understood with traditional catholic organizations like the SSPX and the CMRI is how come they require couples to wait 6 months before getting married? I think that is unnecessary if the couple is already aware of their marital responsibilities. I don't understand why one or two meetings between the priest and the couple isn't sufficient. Was this 6 month waiting period customary before Vatican II?
It would seem to be one of those "traditions" from the 1950s. (which is when "pre-Cana" came in. given the track record of pre-Cana - it's something that should dumped in the ash heap)
1950s morality puts avoiding sin way down the list in importance.
Giving children a chance to enjoy 1950s "youth culture" - going out alone together in cars, etc - having overnight drinking parties for mixed groups of teens (which Mater Dominici defended) - are fifiesist assumptions about life that must be eradicated from Catholic traditionalism if there is to be any hope of preserving integral Catholicism.
It is traditional Catholic teaching that a young couple should be preparing for a speedy marriage if they spend time together alone frequently. Unfortunately words like "speedy" can be made relative - and we know that priests with liberal tendencies always bend such words - so six months after an engagement is "speedy" to them - no matter how long the couple has known each other before that time.
Go to CAF and see what they say - there are NO bishops literally saying couples should wait
years to get married. Wet behind the ears posters like Spiritus Sanctus - raised in this culture and implicitly taking its assumptions uncritically - posted many thoughts that were essentially the same - saying people should have "experience" dating before marriage. Those familiar with authentic Traditionalism know that such ideas are anathema to the Catholic conception of sɛҳuąƖ morality.
Why is a speedy marriage demanded? Because the nature of sɛҳuąƖ attraction is not at all conducive to a long period of waiting - particularly when the decision to marry has been made.
We know that clandestine marriages without witnesses were once considered valid. Why did the Church wait so long to impose an impediment preventing such marriages? Because of the immense importance placed on avoiding fornication. A clandestine marriage might be sinful, but it was less sinful than fornication.
It's quite obvious - whether consciously or unconsciously - modern people don't really believe in taking necessary steps to avoid sin if they think an arbitrary minimum of six months wait is necessary.
Modern people - and that includes most trads and trad parents - wink at sɛҳuąƖ sins committed by young couples or are in denial.